THE PASSENGER PIGEON. 27 



after having viewed them so often, and under so many circumstances, I even 

 now feel inclined to pause, and assure myself that what I am going to relate 

 is fact. Yet I have seen it all, and that too in the company of persons who, 

 like myself, were struck with amazement. 



In the autumn of 1813, I left my house at Henderson, on the banks of the 

 Ohio, on my way to Louisville. In passing over the Barrens a few miles 

 beyond Hardensburgh, I observed the Pigeons flying from north-east to 

 south-west, in greater numbers than I thought I had ever seen them before, 

 and feeling an inclination to count the flocks that might pass within the reach 

 of my eye in one hour, I dismounted, seated myself on an eminence, and 

 began to mark with my pencil, making a dot for every flock that passed. In 

 a short time finding the task which I had undertaken impracticable, as the 

 birds poured in in countless multitudes, I rose, and counting the dots then 

 put down, found that 163 had been made in twenty-one minutes. I travel- 

 led on, and still met more the farther I proceeded. The air was literally 

 filled with Pigeons; the light of noon-day was obscured as by an eclipse, 

 the dung fell in spots, not unlike melting flakes of snow; and the continued 

 buzz of wings had a tendency to lull my senses to repose. 



Whilst waiting for dinner at Young's inn at the confluence of Salt river 

 with the Ohio, I saw, at my leisure, immense legions still going by, with a 

 front reaching far beyond the Ohio on the west, and the beech-wood forests 

 directly on the east of me. Not a single bird alighted; for not a nut or acorn 

 was that year to be seen in the neighbourhood. They consequently flew so 

 high, that different trials to reach them with a capital rifle proved ineffectual; 

 nor did the reports disturb them in the least. I cannot describe to you the 

 extreme beauty of their aerial evolutions, when a Hawk chanced to press 

 upon the rear of a flock. At once, like a torrent, and with a noise like thun_ 

 der, they rushed into a compact mass, pressing upon each other towards the 

 centre. In these almost solid masses, they darted forward in undulating and 

 angular lines, descended and swept close over the earth with inconceivable 

 velocity, mounted perpendicularly so as to resemble a vast column, and 

 w r hen high, were seen wheeling and twisting within their continued linesj 

 which then resembled the coils of a gigantic serpent. 



Before sunset I reached Louisville, distant from Hardensburgh fifty-five 

 miles. The Pigeons were still passing in undiminished numbers, and con- 

 tinued to do so for three days in succession. The people were all in arms. 

 The banks of the Ohio were crowded with men and boys, incessantly shoot- 

 ing at the pilgrims, which there flew lower as they passed the river. Multi- 

 tudes were thus destroyed. For a week or more, the population fed on no 

 other flesh than that of Pigeons, and talked of nothing but Pigeons. 



It is extremely interesting to see flock after flock performing exactly the 



